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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-62-bm.gif)
Flag of Boulogne-sur-Mer - Image by Ivan Sache, 10 July 2022
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The municipality of Boulogne-sur-Mer (40,910 inhabitants in 2021; 842 ha; municipal website) is located on the mouth of the river Liane on the Pas de Calais, the narrow bottleneck which separates the Channel from the North Sea and France from Britain.
When Julius Caesar attempted to invade Britain (55-54 BP), a port
named Portus Iltius was built near the present town of Boulogne. In 63, Emperor Claudius conquered Britain and set up the Classis Brittanica (Britton Fleet), based in a port that was later protected by a castrum. In the 2nd century, the lower town built around the port was known as Gesoriacum, while the upper town built around the castrum was known as Bononia.
Boulogne became in the 9th century the seat of a powerful county. Count Eustace II supported William the Conqueror during the invasion of Britain. His wife founded in Boulogne the St. Wulmer abbey and the Notre-Dame church. One of their sons was Godefroid of Bouillon (1061-1100), Duke of Lower Lorraine and King of Jerusalem (1099). In the 12th century, the pilgrimage set up in the Notre-Dame church was so important that 14 kings of France and five kings of England accomplished it. Herring fishing was the main source of income of the town.
Count Renaud of Dammartin granted the citizens of Boulogne their first municipal charter in 1203. He was among the feudal lords defeated in 1214 in Bouvines by King of France Philip II Augustus. In 1223, the king gave the County of Boulogne to his illegitimate son, Philippe Hurepel (the Bristling). When King of France Louis VIII died in 1226, Hurepel revolted against the regent Blanche of Castile and reorganized the defence of Boulogne. Hurepel died in 1236 without male descent; the county was incorporated successively to Artois and Burgundy, until King Louis XI eventually incorporated the town to the Kingdom of France in 1478.
Louis XI claimed that Notre-Dame, venerated in the town, was the real
"Lord" of Boulogne, and that he, as his vassal, should try to defend
her interests by all means, including incorporation of the county to
France. Due to its strategical location, Boulogne was called "the
most bordering town of the kingdom". Lacking any defence, the lower
town was seized several times by the English during the
Hundred Years' War (1339, 1347, 1353, 1377)
and completely looted by Henry VII in 1492. In 1510, Henry VIII
seized the upper town, which was purchased back by Francis I
in 1544.
Following the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), the
border moved northwards and Boulogne lost its strategical
importance. Trade (and smuggling) with Britain developed.
Boulogne was proclaimed in 1803 an Imperial Town. To prepare the invasion of Britain, Napoléon I set up the Boulogne Camp. In August 1805, however, the Emperor sent the Coast and Ocean Armies to Austria and the project of invasion was abandoned. The Boulogne Camp is commemorated by the Grand Army Column. Of 53 m in height and 4 m in diameter, the column was designed by the architect Éloi Labarre (1764-1833). Two kilometers away, a monument commemorates the second distribution of the Légion d'Honneur by Napoléon I, which took place there on 16 August 1804.
In August 1840, Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later,
Emperor Napoléon III) secretely landed from England near
Boulogne. He failed to rouse Boulogne to revolt and was jailed into
the fortress of Ham, from which he escaped six years later, using the
clothes of a mason named Badinguet.
The Restauration and the Second Empire (1815 to 1870) was the Gilded
Age of Boulogne. A posh bating resort was built, linked to Paris by
railway in 1848; Boulogne was the first fishing port in France.
Hardly damaged during the First World War, Boulogne experienced more than 500 bombings during the Second World War. When liberated on 17 September 1944, 85% of the town was disastered (but not necessarily destroyed) and the port was completely ruined. The town was rebuilt by the architect and urbanist Pierre Vivier (1909-1999).
Boulogne is the birth town of the egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821-1881), who discovered several ancient Egyptian monuments and founded the Cairo museum; of the novelist and critic Charles-Augustin de Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869); of the theater actors Constant Coquelin, a.k.a. Coquelin l'Ainé (Sr.) (1804-1869) and Ernest Coquelin, a.k.a. Coquelin le Cadet (Jr.) (1846-1901); of the doctor Guillaume Duchenne (1806-1875), founder of electrotherapy; of the scientist Ernest Hamy (1842-1905), founder of the ethnography museum in Paris, now Musée de l'Homme; and of the painter Georges
Mathieu (1921-2012), a member of the lyric abstractive school.
General José de San Martín, one of the liberators of
Argentina (1816), Chile
(1817), and Peru (1821), died in exile in
Boulogne in 1850, in the Casa San Martin, today a museum.
Ivan Sache, 15 November 2002
The arms of Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose present-day's design was granted in 1830 by King Charles X, are "Or three torteaux inescutcheon gules a swan argent". They combine the arms of the Counts of Boulogne, "Or three torteaux 2 and 1", and the medieval arms of the town, "Gules a swan argent beaked and legged sable".
The cover of the book "Mémoire des mayeurs et échevins de Boulogne sur les libertés et franchises de la ville", printed in 1759 by Charles Battut, features the two coat of arms, placed side by side, and surmounted by a single crown; these arms were then used by the municipal administration. The red wax seal used by the mayor ("mayeur") and the municipal councillors ("échevins") around 1730 features the swan shield only.
The oldest representation of the arms of the Counts of Boulogne is featured on the obverse of a denier minted for Count Eustacius II (1049-1087) between 1066 and 1075. The border of the coin is decorated with four triangular shields each charged with four roundels. Another two similar shields appear on the coin's obverse. The four roundels are traditionally related to the four hills surrounding the town of Boulogne or to the four feudal domains ("châtellenies") that protected the town: Tingry, Longvillers, Belle and Fiennes. A denier minted for Count Eustacius III (1087-1125), who succeeded his father, features a representation of the fortified town, protected by four angle towers, and four roundels representing the four domains.
The reverse of a denier minted for Stephen de Blois (1092/1096-1154), King of England (1135-1154) and Count of Boulogne (1125-1147) after his marriage with Matilda (1105-1152), Eustacius III's daughter, features a shield charged with six roundels.
The number of roundels on the arms of the Counts of Boulogne was fixed to three at an unknown date, maybe on the model of the reform of the French royal arms issued in 1381 by Charles VI (1380-1422).
After the incorporation of Boulogne to the Kingdom of France, the arms of the county and of the town were united and never changed since then. The red wax seal of the "sénéchaussée" of Boulonnais, manufactured in 1477, shows a swan holding in the beak the shield of the Counts of Boulogne, while the royal arms of France are represented in chief.
The origin of the roundels used on the arms of the count of Boulogne is obscure. Eustacius II is portrayed on one of the most famous scenes of the Bayeux tapestry, pointing the right hand to William the Conqueror and holding in his left hand a banner with three tails. The field of the banner is quartered by a golden cross and a roundel is placed in each quarter. The banner is usually identified as the papal banner offered by Alexander II (1061-1073), which was actually raised on the Hastings battle field according to the Norman chronicler William of Poitiers (c; 1020-1090). The banner might have been a source of inspiration for Eustacius II when designing its own emblem. [source: "Cygnes et tourteaux", by Marcel Fournet, with the kind collaboration of the numismatist Pierre Leclercq].
Marcel Fournet claims that the use of the swan, mistakenly identified as a goose by Scotté around 1700, as a symbol of Boulogne, predates its adoption as their personal emblem by the Counts of Boulogne.
However, the duck featured on a bronze coin minted by the Gaul tribe of Morini, which was found in Taringhen, cannot be connected to the medieval arms of the town without further evidence. Father Ducrocq, a monk from the Benedictine abbey of Samer, near Calais, reports in his "Recherches historiques sur les pays des Morins" (1650) how the towns of the north of France threatened by an epidemic of black plague send in 828 envoys to the St. Médard abbey in Soissons; the inventory of this abbey made in 1538 describes the envoy's banner as "Gules a swan argent".
Municipal seals, which appeared at the end of the 12th century, usually feature a coat of arms, a topographical element, an emblematic or symbolic architecture, or the representation of a patron saint or an economical activity. In some cases, the seal depicts episodes of the legendary life of local saints or of the Blessed Virgin; the seal of Boulogne, however, is unique since its features a narrative, non religious representation.
Boulogne, like several towns in the areas, used two kinds of seals, a great seal, for diplomatic purpose, therefore rarely used, and and a common seal, for commercial purpose. The first known great seal of Boulogne, printed on a document dated 1269, features the Mayor of the town riding a horse and holding a command baton, represented like a knight but without armor. The companion counter-seal features an eight-petal floret and is inscribed "NOBISCUM DEUS" (God With Us). The common seal of the time, illustrated in Francisque Michel's "Histoire des Portugais" after an original print once kept in the Tournai Municipal Archives, features a man dressed with a tunic, holding a lance and a shield charged with a swan, standing in a boat drawn by a swan, Above the scene are the moon and, possibly, the sun.
The scene represented on the common seal is taken from the "Geste du chevalier au cygne et de la première croisade" (Geste of the Swan Knight and the First Crusade). The first part of the geste relates the legendary origin of Godfrey de Bouillon. Knight Hélias and his six brothers and sisters, born from a fairy and a king, morphed into swans to bath in a lake. The child who could not recover his human body stayed with Hélias, drawing his boat whilst entering the town of Nijmegen to visit the emperor of Germany. The faithful Swan Knight was rewarded by marrying Clarissa, Duchess of Bouillon, the emperor's daughter. Their daughter, Ida, married Eustacius de Boulogne and was the mother of Godfrey de Bouillon, Baldwin and Eustacius II, three main characters of the First Crusade.
The seal representing the swan legend appears to have been adopted in 1269, when Robert V, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne, reestablished the municipality and the municipal symbols (the belfry, the bells and the seals) that had been suppressed in 1263 by King Louis XI.
The swan might have been used by Robert V to highlight his link with the first Counts of Boulogne; the knight would represent his father, Guillaume de Clermont, who had married Alix de Brabant, the grand-daughter of Matthew de Boulogne. The legendary marriage would remember the marriage that actually allowed Robert to become Count of Boulogne.
The representation of the geste was also probably directed to Louis XI, suzerain of the County of Boulogne, who was obsessed by the Crusades, recalling him the contribution of the descendants of Hélias to the First Crusade.
At the end of the 14th century, the town manufactured new seals, keeping the dual system. The great seal still shows the Mayor riding, on a background decorated with swags and lattice; on the counter-seal, the sketchy floret is replaced by a daisy. The common seal differs from the original one by a few details: a horse is added in the boat while the knight wears a helmet. Moreover, the knight holds a lance equipped with a pennant and his shield is charged with a cross. Above the scene are God's hand, a moon (represented at the same time full, quartered, and with human face) and the sun.
This new version of the seal can be considered as a strong element of propaganda for the new ruler of Boulogne, Duke John de Berry. The duke, already Duke of Auvergne since 1360, married in 1398 Joan de Boulogne, and succeeded his father-in-law, John II, in 1404. In the real life, John de Berry was greedy and deloyal; on the seal, he would be represented as a new Swan Knight, a noble knight blessed by God's hand.
By a mere but convenient coincidence, John de Berry already used a swan in his arms, adopted in the 1360s, represented with a bear. The modern explanation of these odd arms is a rebus derived from the name of John's wife, Ursine ("urs", for "ours", "a bear", and "sine" for "cygne", "a swan"). The seal would therefore represent the voyage of the former Swan Prince to Boulogne, where he became the Swan Knight, and legitimate the dynastic change, as did Robert V more than one century before.
The counter-seal features a simple shield charged with a swan, representing the bird as the emblem of the knight and no longer as the drawer of his boat. Due to its smaller size, counter-seals usually feature a condensed version of the charges represented on the main seal.
[source: Ambre Vilain-De Bruyne. 2012. La légende du Chevalier au cygne sur le sceau de la ville de Boulogne-sur-Mer : un hapax sigillaire. Bulletin Monumental, 170, 323-332]
Ivan Sache, 10 July 2022
The flag of Boulogne is quartered blue-yellow by a white cross, with the municipal arms, "Or an escutcheon gules charged with a swan argent surrounded by three bezants gules", placed in the center of the cross: photo (2019), photo (2019), photo (date unknown)
Ivan Sache, 15 November 2002
The flag of Boulogne-sur-Mer is a modern rendition of the color used by the local militia (Boulonnais troops) established in 1672.
Ivan Sache, 10 July 2022
Former logo flag of Boulogne-sur-Mer
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-62-b2.gif)
Former logo flag of Boulogne-sur-Mer - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 20 October 2024
Another flag for Boulogne has been in use in the years 2000, blue with the municipal logo before 2015. It was sometimes observed on the town hall and on the beffroi: photo and photo from this site (2007), photo (2004).
Olivier Touzeau, 20 October 2024
![[Burgee]](../images/f/fr-62~bm.gif)
Burgee of YCB - Image by Ivan Sache, 28 September 2019
The burgee (photo, photo, photo) of Yacht Club Boulonnais (YCB, established in 1997; website) is made of two blue triangles placed along the hoist and a red point, separated from the triangles by a white chevron. The white letters "Y", "C" and "B" are placed in the two triangles and in the point, respectively.
Ivan Sache, 28 September 2019
The Société Humaine et des Naufrages de Boulogne-sur-Mer (SNH), still active, was the first sea rescue society established in continental Europe. At the time, the port town of Boulogne was enjoyed by an affluent English community fond of sea bathing.
On 11 September 1825, Reverend Edge delivered in the Protestant chapel
of Boulogne a sermon preaching for the establishment of a Humane
Society, on the model of the Royal Human Society established in 1774 in
London. The Reverend was, ironically, drowned a few months later whilst
bathing.
On 27 October 1825, the newspaper L'Annotateur presented the report
tabled by French and English medical doctors of the town, who proposed
to equip the "guides-swimmers" with "floating jackets and rescuing ropes
manufactured after Captain Manby's ingenious design; a flat-hulled, wide
boat made like those of the Norwegians and transportable by a single
man". Material required to equip a first-aid post was further listed.
The same day, Captain Gaullier informed the Mayor of Boulogne that
Reverend Symons, from the Protestant chapel, had tabled a petition
asking permission to establish a first-aid post in the Machicoulis watch
post. The permission granted on 30 November 1825 by the Ministry of War
is considered as the founding event of the SNH, then simply called
Société Humaine.
The first board of the society was composed of six English (John
Larking, Esquire; Reverend Symons; Hartwell, Esquire; Powell, Esquire;
Colonel Maclachlan, Colonel Peacocke) and six French (Alexandre Adam,
banker; Baron Vattier, Rear Admiral; Baron Louis du Blaisel, Louis
Fontaine, President of the Court of Commerce; Auguste Gros, lawyer)
members. The binational board of the SNH has been maintained since then.
The doctors of the town wrote, bilingual detailed instructions of first
aid to people appeared to have drowned.
Rear Admiral Vattier supervised the building of a life boat, a ship
quite unusual at the time. On 3 August 1826, Vattier sent a letter to
the editor of L'Annotateur, thanking the French and foreign
inhabitants of the town for their moral and financial support and
recalling that four people had already been saved from drowning.
The board of the SNH required on 4 July 1826 official recognition by the
Ministry of the Interior, which was not granted. The Ministry accepted
to "tolerate" the society, provided it is placed under the authority of
the municipal administration and presided by the Mayor. The municipality
soon accepted to subsidize the society, the annuity increasing from 500
francs in 1828 to 3,500 francs in 1871.
In the next years (1832-1833), similar societies were founded in
Dunkirk, Calais, Rouen and Bayonne.
In 1827, the society purchased another two boats, equipped with oars,
grapnels and lifebelts, aimed at watching beaches in summer season, from
dawn to sunset. On 22 October 1829, the society's boat completed its
first operation, rescuing the crew of a fishing boat that had ran
aground onto the coast during a storm.
On 19 December 1832, the Royal Humane Society of London officially
congratulated the Société Humaine de Boulogne-sur-Mer for its "constant
prosperity".
On 31 August 1833, the English vessel Amphytrite, transporting 106
women and 12 children sentenced to deportation to Australia, ran aground onto a sandbank close to the entrance of the port. The life saver Pierre
Hénin and the pilots Huret and Testard heroically attempted to rescue
the ship-wrecked people, to no avail, whilst the scene was spotted from
the port by hundreds of inhabitants of the town. At high tide, the ship
disappeared. Only three out of the 18 crew members survived, while all
the passengers were drowned.
The disaster provided evidence that the SNH lacked adequate means of
rescue. The society, supported by the Mayor, required from the Ministry
of the Navy the building of a modern lifeboat; on 4 December 1833, the
Minister answered that such a boat being not available in the French
military ports, he would commission the Cherbourg arsenal to build such a boat, based on the English model designed by George Palmer in 1828.
The Amiral de Rosamel, launched in 1834, was sunk on 19 October 1869
during the (successful) rescue of the Joséphina, after having saved
more than 250 lives.
The Société Humaine et des Naufrages was eventually approved by the
Ministry of the Interior on 26 November 1846, 21 years after its
establishment.
On 28 February 1849, four seamen from the Liberté and three from the
Henriette were drowned because the Amiral de Rosamel, still the only
boat operated by the SNH, ran aground onto the wharf. The philanthropist
Richard Wallace (1818-1890), who had been living in Boulogne for a few
years, offered a boat to the society and funded the erection of a new
building at the headquarters of the society. The municipality provided
funds for the building of a second boat, the Georges Manby and the
revamping of the Amiral Rosamel.
Emperor Napoléon III, whilst visiting Boulogne in 1854, accepted the
title of patron of the SNH; in 1857, the Duke of Northumberland,
President of the Royal National Life Boat Institution, accepted the
title of vice-patron. A slipway was constructed in 1864.
[E. Deseille.
Histoire de la Société Humaine de Boulogne-sur-Mer / Société Humaine et des Naufrages de Boulogne-sur-Mer. Son histoire et ses actes depuis
sa fondation en 1825, 1867]
Günter Mattern [mar87] shows the flag of the SHN as a white flag, dharged in the center with a blue give-pointed star, above in an arch "VIRTUS ET SPES" (Latin, Virtue and Hope).
The aforementioned detailed report of the early years of the SNH, written by the
Secretary of the society, is full of first-hand details but does not include anything on a flag used by the life boats operated by the SNH. Nothing is said, either, on any motto
inscribed on the flag. The identification of the flag by Günter Mattern is indeed erroneous. Album des pavillons nationaux et
des marques distinctives des marines de guerre et de commerce (1889)
shows the flag, with the motto "Spes et Virtus", as the (early) flag of
the Société Centrale de Sauvetage des Naufragés. This rendition is probably erroneous, too, since the motto of the SCS, as inscribed on medals, is indeed "Virtus et Spes".
Another postcard (photo) shows the lifeboat of the Bréhat island (Brittany) with the flag as reported by Mattern (square). The modern label of the image (website), "flag of the Société humaine et des naufrages de Boulogne, adopted by the SCS", does not make sense, since the SNH was never merged into the SCS.
Ivan Sache & Željko Heimer, 14 December 2017
